Where are you Goan?

My train arrived in Goa on the 9th of February at about 10am. It was hot and so many people were crowding the platform. I squeezed my way through the gate along with everyone else to find Suddah, the Yoga Magic driver, waiting for me, holding a sign w/ my name on it...baller! The resort is absolutely gorgeous, a complete 180 degree turn from where I had been staying. This is a yoga eco resort in the little of Anjuna in the state of Goa (I originally thought it was a town, silly rabbit). My room is a bamboo and grass hut in the middle of the rice paddy fields. My door closes, sometimes, and my windows are hope spaces in the sides of the hut. I sleep on a mattress on the floor withe clean sheets and a pretty red blanket, think, with golden stitched elephants. The resort is all outside, guests sleep in Rajastani tents and flowers and gardens swirl through out the premises. The walkways are composed of dung/grass/and wager and spread evenly to look like, and solidify similar to cement. An infinity pool rests to the side of the restaurant, overlooking the fields with crows, roaming cows, dogs, cats, parrots, and water buffalo. This is also an amazing place to watch the sunrise which comes up as a magnificent color of orange I have never seen in the States. There is a restaurant/eating area with tables and matts on the floor with orange bolsters and low tables so you can eat on the floor at with your hands (the RIGHT hand, I cannot stress that enough). When I arrived it was breakfast time which has a cold and hot component. Always, there is a buffet of chopped fruits (Banana, pineapple, chikoo, pomegranate, papaya, watermelon, and shaved coconut) as well as curd (buffalo curd), muesli and honey. Hot might be dal, french toast, eggs, whatever. MMM I can also get lassis (basically a yogurt smoothie) and chai/tea/coffee and toast.

Being that I am a volunteer, I get accommodation, food and yoga for free! I have class in the morning from 8-9:30 with Peter who is from the UK (Goa is a very touristy area, like, painfully touristy and westernized). I am sore in places that I've never felt before, or at least, in a long time; my upper abdominal, the inside of my thighs and the backs of my shoulders, it's amazing! I can even touch my toes now, which I don't think I've ever been able to do.

The second night Krishna, a local energy cleaner, came and had a workshop in the outdoor yoga space. He works by cleaning out the energy remaining from past diseases/ailments/drug use, whatever. I did not understand this at that time and at the end Tania, another guest that I've gotten close to (mother of two and originally from Sri Lanka bun living in the UK) asked me how I liked it and if I felt anything. I started to try and say that I was frustrated because I had no idea what was going on and immediately got very upset; my eyes welled up with tears and my voice started wavering. I had no idea I was THAT upset! The more we discussed it, it was more that maybe that is an energy blockage that I'm trying to work through within myself and that's how my body was expressing it, however, after the workshop was when I opened up to the experience rather than during it.

I've been trying to become more aware of my body and mind-the thoughts that arise, feelings, sensations, emotions, whatever. I know that a lot of people would listen to these things and think it's a scam and crazy talk, but I'm really finding it interesting and some sort of connection. Th main stream public doesn't think twice about instinct and intuition, right? That gut feeling you have about person, place, situation, etc. I think this cleansing, healing, kandalini, seeing energies and oras, it's just another level of that intuition, ya? There are a couple people here that are very in touch with themselves spiritually, Eva from Germany and Tania's sister, Fiona. When I talk to them, even now writing, I get this stranger feeling on the top part of my head, like when your hairs stand up on your arms, and it travels down my jaw and half way down my spine-I don't know what this means, if anything, but I'd like to explore it more.

I hung out by/in the pool most of the day and had a meeting with Phil and Juliet, the owners, as well as Katie and Steve, two other volunteers. Katie is from LA but went to school is Welesley in Boston and is my age; Steve is a photographer in his 30's from the UK. Basically, the plan for the next few days was to get the place ready for a big party they were having on the 14th (Valentine's day). A Love Party, not for couples, but a celebration for ourselves and the world. This is actually a very auspicious cosmic day, the dawning of the age of Aquarious (seriously) where certain planets were aligned. The next few days consisted of a lot of cleaning, making bamboo frames, signs for the party and going to the market in Mapusa (a nearby Goan town) for supplies. I went with Fareda, one of the Indian workers, because she is good with bargaining. We found out early on that I had to walk away and pretend like I didn't know her so she could get the real price and not the tourist price; shows how much I get screwed daily!

The party, itself, was interesting. Everyone had to dress in white, no cameras,, shoes, or alcohol allowed. It started with a Mayan chant around the fire praying to the seven directions (North, West, East, South, Gods above, Nations below, and ourselves) and then there was dancing in the restaurant area Rave style with a pumped beat and bodies flaily in the motion that they were inspired, not the bump 'n grind that I'm used to seeing, just everyone letting go. At ten we all sat on the floor in rows and had dinner doled out to us India style; we each had a plate and the workers came around with buckets and scooped out rice, dal, beetroot salad, poppadoms and green beans, which we then ate with our hands and licked our fingers (everything Westerners are taught not to do).

Afterwards, a guitarist played who was absolutely genius and a woman showed a movie she made about fire along with an interpretive dance. By this point,, everyone was exhausted, covered in gold glitter, and on their way home. I was so tired because I was nonstop all day-two hour morning run, worked until the party started at five and then mingled from there.

Since then everything has been a lot more relaxed. Working here and there in the garden, working more on updating my blog and updating pictures and reading. I've also been working on conquering my fear of driving. Katie and I are sharing a moped and I've used it a few times. The roads are tiny and twisting, plus traffic flows on the left so it's been a challenge. The other night Katie and I got lost at about midnight and we were really pretty scared. Two guys stopped and one stood in the middle of the road, undoing his belt and yelling "I want to suck you!" we bolted. I could help but laugh at jumbled up vulgar phrase, though. The next morning we heard that there have been incidences where girls at night have been pulled off of their bikes, good thing we didn't know about that then or really would have freaked out!